Ares
by sunshinehina
Summary: Hinata is happy. Things haven't been so fun for him in a while. But of course, it was too early to be content. He thought he can start fresh, but the past is a part of you, and if you run from it, it will just chase you until you realize that there's no way you can outrun it. In which Kageyama isn't the only one who had bitter past when it comes to volleyball.
1. Chapter 1

To say he was excited is an understatement. Today is the day he has been waiting for, the day they will go to attend a training camp with other schools, Nekoma included. Of course, Hinata was excited to play volleyball, but as an addition he cannot wait to meet his friend, Kenma, and of course the other boys too. They were all gathered at their school now, waiting for the last of them—Asahi and Ennoshita—to arrive. They are going to depart in the middle of the night so that they would arrive there in the morning.

When they arrived, they were greeted by some boys from the other schools. Hinata bounced to Kenma and talked excitedly. Everyone went to the room they will be staying in to drop their belongings and get changed to their gears. They were up against Nekoma first, and Hinata was super excited. Kageyama just kept staring pointedly at Kenma, while Lev was riling Hinata up.

Nekoma won the first set, which clearly made both Hinata and Kageyama more determined to beat their rival up. Their other teammates are fired up too, except of course Tsukishima who was just playing calmly as usual. Karasuno won the second set, but in the end Nekoma won the last set, so it was Karasuno's loss.

It went that way until the end of the day, they keep having practice matches with the other teams, learning new things and making new friends. Even the antisocial Tsukishima is getting approached by Bokuto, Kuroo and some other boys, even though the tall blonde himself seems a little bit annoyed.

It happened when they were eating dinner. Most of the boys had already finished their meals, and were just sitting around chatting with each other. Suddenly, the coaches said that they want to announce something, so everyone sat down and settled. Everyone eyed their coaches curiously.

"This might be a little bit sudden," Coach Nekomata started. "But we will have an addition to this camp. Please welcome them and be nice." He stated before glancing to the cafeteria entrance and nodding.

A group of boys walked in, led by a tall man in his thirties. He gave the coaches a quick nod, and faced the boys. Everyone stared at the new team curiously. Tanaka and Nishinoya are making scary faces without any reason as usual, supported by Yamamoto while Daichi smacked them all.

"Oya oya oya?" Both Bokuto and Kuroo stupidly exclaimed.

Kenma took a glance uninterestedly and reverted his attention back to his phone. Tsukishima stared at the addition boredly, clicking his tongue. The rest just looked at the new team curiously, trying to see whether they recognize any faces. Unfortunately for Hinata, he recognized a face he doesn't want to see. Not now, not ever. Thankfully, he was seated far from the new team and the coaches, so he just looked down and tried to make himself smaller, praying that he wouldn't be noticed. The others were too preoccupied staring at the new group to notice.

"Good evening. I'm Ito Ryosuke, the coach of Kaisei Volleyball Team. It's a pleasure to be here. Please take care of us." he bowed slightly, and the boys from Kaisei followed his example.

"Kaisei?"

"Isn't that school strong?"

"The rumors are they are pretty good!" the boys started whispering. The boys from Karasuno, of course, doesn't know anything about this team.

The team looked normal. They were mostly tall, most of them were around 180 and 190cm, even though there were some short ones. Most of them looked bored and uninterested, mirroring Tsukishima's expression.

The boy with the dark-blue hair and black eyes, in particular, looked very uninterested. He stood lazily, scanning the crowd in front of him without any interest. That is before, he spotted the boy with messy orange hair.

"HA!" he scoffed loudly. Every eyes went to him and he smirked. "to think that I thought this training camp would be a waste of time!" he exclaimed, staring at the Karasuno table. The boys just stared at him confusedly.

"This is _such_ a blessing!" he exclaimed—sarcasm thick. Suga thought his coach would have scolded him but he just sighed and made a face at the blue-haired boy. "to think that I'm given the chance to meet _such a talented player_!" he continued, still staring at Karasuno's table. Everyone started realizing where he's looking at, and tried to find out who is he was referring to.

"Is he talking about Kageyama?" Yamaguchi asked questioningly.

Kageyama tilted his head,"I don't know him."

"You don't know him, but maybe _he_ knows you. After all, you are the infamous king of the court." Tsukishima scoffed. Daichi shot a warning look towards Tsukishima while Kageyama gritted his teeth, trying not to get worked up by the blonde. The third years eyed each other in confusion. _Is this new kid mental?_

The blue-haired boy laughed,"What are you doing, staring at the floor? Is there anything interesting on the floor, oh mighty Ares?"

The boys looked around and found the one the crazy boy has been referring to. Hinata is staring at the floor, body and expression stiff.

"What—"

"He's talking about Hinata?!" Tanaka didn't understand.

"No, no Ryu. He said _talented player_!" Nishinoya said, and got elbowed by Suga.

Everyone else was just too stunned to say anything. Hinata doesn't move, he kept staring at the floor, which is definitely strange for him. Kenma started throwing him worried glance.

"What?"

"Ares? Oi Tamura, what are you saying?" the boys from Kaisei started questioning their teammate. But the boy just ignored them and strolled casually towards the table, directly towards Hinata. Everyone followed his movements in silence, faces clearly stating that they are beyond confused. Even Tsukishima raised his eyebrows.

"Oooi~" the dark-blue haired boy waved his hands near Hinata's head, and grabbed his shoulder. "I'm right here, Oh Mighty Ares! Or should I call you The G—" before he could finish what he was saying, Hinata pushed him back with such force he fell down. The expression on Hinata's face was unreadable. He stood up, ignoring his gaping teammates.

"Don't—don't call me that." He said, voice tight, and he ran out of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**a/n** : Hello! I want to thank everyone who's reading this fic. This is actually my very first Haiku fanfic, so I apologize if it's shitty. I'm currently on summer break, so I'll try to update this story at least once a week. Please leave some reviews/comments about your thoughts on this story, i'd appreciate it very much. Hope you enjoy this chapter! :D

Everyone was silent, too surprised and confused to move. Even the coaches didn't know what to do. The dark-blue haired boy stood up and mumbled something, but everyone did recognize how surprised he was at Hinata's outburst. He went back to his team, his coach glaring at him with such intensity.

"I apologize," he said to the other coaches and the boys,"Tamura right here is a troublesome boy, always looking for trouble." He sighed and bowed. He then glared pointedly at Tamura, before telling the Kaisei boys to get out of the cafeteria and rest for the day. The other coaches followed his lead, telling their boys to get some sleep.

"Shouldn't someone go after Hinata?" Asahi broke the silence, worried.

"I'll go after him, I'm his senpai after all! Let's go Ryu!" Nishinoya exclaimed, Tanaka roared in reply. Daichi gave them a stern look, which fortunately is enough to shut them up.

"I will go after him." Kageyama stated. However, before he can move Suga stopped him, giving him a look. Surely, Kageyama isn't the right person in situations like this. "I'll go." Suga said as he went to look for their decoy.

Suga went to the gym to find it empty, he then went around the school looking for Hinata, but he just could't find him. He looked around, worried for Hinata. "Where did he go.. what if something happened?" Suga thought. In the end, Suga went back to the classroom where Karasuno's staying because he went everywhere and just couldn't find him.

"I couldn't find him." he stated simply when he went inside, not giving anyone a chance to attack him with questions. Daichi eyed him warily.

"Everyone go to sleep." He said quickly. "I'm gonna wait until Hinata comes back. We have training tomorrow, and we're gonna start early. You all need to sleep." It was already midnight, so Daichi does have a point.

Not wanting to make their captain angry, everyone went to their own futons and went to sleep, some more reluctant than others. However, most of them fall asleep easily because they were all tired.

It was 1 am when the door was opened, Daichi was dozing off but the sound of the door alerted him.

"Hinata?" He whispered.

"Sorry, Daichi-san." Hinata replied simply. He then went directly to his futon, not giving Daichi any chance to ask anything. Daichi sighed as he looked at his unusually quiet teammate, but he decided to let it go because they both need some sleep.

—

Hinata could really use some sleep, but in the end he couldn't sleep at all. He couldn't stop worrying, his chest felt heavy and he felt anxious. He went to take a bath before everybody else woke up because he realized that he's not going to get any sleep anyway. He looked around warily on his way to and back from the bathroom, afraid that he'll bump into someone he doesn't want to face. Fortunately, it's early in the morning and no one seemed to be awake, so he didn't meet anyone. He stood in front of the classroom door where Karasuno was staying, hesitating. He knew that his teammates would want to know about what Tamura was saying, what he meant by all that. He knew that he'd have to tell them eventually, but he wasn't ready. Yet. If possible, he wanted to keep his past as a secret forever. So he decided that he would just dodge the questions and act like nothing's happened if his teammates ended up questioning him.

Fortunately, when everyone started waking up their captain ordered them to take a bath quickly because the practice was going to start soon, so no one had the time to interrogate Hinata. Hinata, though, was still worried. Not about his teammates, but about today's practice. He wasn't sure what he should do.

"Hinata, idiot! What are you doing? Let's go to the gym!" Kageyama yelled, startling Hinata. They all made their way to the gym, Kageyama racing Hinata usual. Hinata was just glad that their black-haired setter wasn't questioning him, or treating him any different. Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad day after all.

He decided that it was too soon to say that after all when they arrive at the gym. The other teams were already there, Kaisei included. Hinata felt his heart beating faster and his throat tightened. Tamura looked at him and scoffed.

"Ukai-san." Hinata approached Ukai, who was chatting with Takeda. "I-I'm not feeling well. Can I s-sit out today's matches?" He asked, toying with the end of his shirt, trying to avoid eye-contact. Ukai frowned. This is the first time Hinata had asked to sit out a match. Normally, he'd be fired up and bouncing just to be in a match. He gave it a thought then nodded. "alright then, Hinata. You should still watch the matches though, there are things you can learn from outside the court too." He finally said. Hinata nodded and went to sit down beside him.

"Hinata! We're warming up! Come on!" Sugawara called him, causing people to look at the glum ball-of-sunshine.

"He's not feeling well! He's sitting out today." Ukai announced and told everyone else to warm up and stretch properly. After stretching, Kageyama went to his partner.

"You're not feeling well? But you look absolutely fine." He tilted his head.

"Yeah Shouyou! You look fine to me!" Nishinoya exclaimed, suddenly standing beside Kageyama.

"He's not feeling well." Ukai stated firmly. Yes, he had his own suspicions, but he knew Hinata isn't the type who like to skip practice because of laziness or things like that, the boy loves volley so much he'd always be the last one going home if he can help it, so Ukai decided that whatever reason he had, he was going to respect it. The rest of Karasuno was suddenly there too, looking at Hinata and Ukai questioningly. "You're gonna have to play without him today."

Hinata just kept staring at the floor, still avoiding any eye-contact. "Sorry, everyone." He mumbled loud enough for his teammates to hear. The uncharacteristic behavior of their teammate fired Tanaka up.

"Don't worry, Hinata! Your senpai will win the matches for you!" Tanaka said.

"Yeah! Just watch your cool senpais, Shouyou!" Nishinoya shouted. Kageyama was frowning at Hinata, while Tsukishima just stared at him as is he had grown another head. They were going against Kaisei first, and their starting members were Daichi, Sugawara, Asahi, Tanaka, Tsukishima and Kageyama, with Nishinoya as the libero, of course.

Upon seeing Karasuno's starting players, Tamura laughed.

"Oh? What is this? You're not playing?" he asked loudly from the other side of the court, looking at Hinata who was desperately staring at the floor. "Ah, right. What benefit would we get by participating in a match with certain result?" He smirked.

Hinata stiffened and gritted his teeth. He wished he could just disappear.

"Excuse me, can you stop saying nonsense?" Every head turned to Tsukishima. "None of us cares about whatever you're trying to say." He clicked his tongue. His words woke the others, who had been staring at Tamura confusedly.

Tanaka and Nishinoya started making scary faces at him and yelling at Tamura not to mess with their kouhai. Kageyama was glaring pointedly at Tamura. Ennoshita, Kinoshita and Narita were trying to calm their fellow second years, and they were failing miserably. Yamaguchi and Asahi looked worried while Daichi smacked Tanaka and Nishinoya. Sugawara just stared worriedly at the orange-haired boy.

"What does he mean by certain result? Is he saying that no matter what we will lose?" Sugawara mumbled.

"Let's try to win this." Daichi was suddenly at his side, frowning. "I don't know what's the deal with Hinata and that boy, but we can clearly see that what he said bothered him."

"Yeah, definitely. Let's win this." Sugawara smiled at their captain.

They lost.


	3. Chapter 3

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Kaisei was surprisingly strong. After being done with the matches, Daichi heard the boys from the other teams whispering about how Kaisei wasn't a particularly strong team before, but this year it was different. Tamura, much to Daichi's dismay, is a very good player. He's a middle blocker. Done with the matches, most of the boys were heading back to the cafeteria to get some food and then take a relaxing bath. Hinata stood up and started heading towards the cafeteria./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Hey, chibi-chan!" Kuroo called him. Hinata stopped and turned to him, waiting for Kuroo to continue. "We're going to have a little bit of extra practice, me, Bokuto, Akaashi, and the megane-kun. Wanna come along?" Tsukishima clicked his tongue and mumbled something that sounded like I didn't say I'm gonna participate./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What extra practice? Can I join too? Let me join, Kuroo-san!" Lev was suddenly beside Hinata./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Kuroo ignored Lev and added,"You can ask Kenma to join, too. He doesn't like doing extra practice, he doesn't like doing extra anything, to be honest. But maybe he'd do it if you're the one who ask him, chibi-chan." Kuroo smirked./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Thanks for inviting me." Hinata said when Akaashi and Bokuto joined Kuroo. "But I think I'll pass. Good night." He then turned and went to the cafeteria. Surprised by the response, Kuroo turned to look at Tsukishima./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What?" Tsukishima barked./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Nothing~" He said. "Well, let's go then!" he said happily, Akaashi followed him while Bokuto ran ahead to the gym. Tsukishima sighed and followed them. "There's definitely something wrong with Hinata. That idiot wouldn't give up extra practice, especially if it's offered to him. Do the things that Tamura said bothered him that much? What did he meant anyway?" Tsukishima pondered./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Hinata went to the cafeteria and ate his meal quietly. His teammates were concerned. Daichi had warned them not to bother Hinata with questions before Hinata came in to the cafeteria./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""He'll tell us when he's ready." He said sternly, eyeing Tanaka and Nishinoya in particular./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Tanaka and Nishinoya tried to make their decoy to talk a lot as usual, but it was clear that Hinata's mind was elsewhere. He'd listen and mumble in agreement once in a while, not participating as much as usual. Suga and Asahi eyed him worriedly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Oi, Hinata." Kageyama called out to him. Hinata, who was staring at the carrots on his plate absent mindedly, turned to look at his partner. "was he your friend in Junior High School?" Kageyama asked./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Who?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""That Tamamura boy." Kageyama said as he drank the milk he had gotten from the vending machine./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Daichi facepalmed internally./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Tamura." Hinata corrected him quietly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yeah, him." Kageyama agreed. "Was he?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""...No. He wasn't." Hinata answered vaguely, and mumbled something, but it was too quiet no one heard what he said. "Thanks for the meal." He then stood up and left, not bothering to tell anyone where he'd be going./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Kageyama." Daichi sighed at the first-year setter. "What did I say about questioning Hinata?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yeah, Kageyama! Listen to our captain!" Nishinoya added./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Kageyama tilted his head. "What did you say about questioning Hinata?" He repeated./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Suga reached Daichi's shoulder. "Kageyama went to the toilet when you were briefing the rest. He doesn't know." He offered a small smile./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Hinata-kun is acting strange, isn't he?" Yachi said as she watched her fellow first year walked out of cafeteria. She was eating with Kiyoko, along with the managers from other school./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yes, it's not like him." Kiyoko nodded in agreement./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Don't you think it's because of the things Tamura-san said to him, Kiyoko-senpai? He seemed really bothered, and whenever Tamura sees him he'd make faces and taunt him." Yachi frowned in dismay. She didn't enjoy watching her friend, the boy who had helped her, being taunted in front of other people. "I'm going after him." She mumbled to herself and went after Hinata./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /p  
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She found Hinata outside, staring at the moon. If she didn't see it with her own eyes, she wouldn't believe that Hinata is capable of standing still, staring at the moon with such disturbed face. It was almost as if he was a different person./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Hinata-kun." She called out to him. Hinata was startled, but he quickly flashed her a grin./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yachi-san."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Yachi smiled back at him. "Is anything.. bothering you?" she asked. Hinata seemed surprised with her question, and Yachi panicked./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I-it's not.. I know we're not that close and I probably wouldn't understand if it's about volleyball.. b-but if you need someone to talk to I'd always listen! I mean, we're friends, and you really helped me with my mom before! So if you need anything, you can always ask me!" she tried to explain. She was sure that she had made things worse, but surprisingly, Hinata gave him a small smile./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Thank you, Yachi-san. I—Thank you." He said, not knowing what to say. It wasn't about being close or not, but he wasn't ready to tell Yachi, or anyone from Karasuno about his past. After all, they lost against Aobajosai. It was Daichi, Suga and Asahi's last year and they lost. Sure, they still have one more chance but they still lost. Hinata was afraid everyone would be angry at him if they know.. no, he knows they would be mad at him. And he wasn't ready for that./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /p  
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"That night, Hinata went to Ukai to talk. He knew that he was being too much, the purpose of this training camp is to help their team, Karasuno, to become better. Because it was going to be the their last chance to play with the third years, and everyone wanted to win. And Hinata understood that they need everyone to be at their best, he included. But right now, he couldn't do it./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Ukai-san, I.." He wanted to look right into his coach's eyes but he was too nervous, so he stared at his hands instead. "I'm sorry. Can I sit out tomorrow too?" he asked in a small voice. Ukai was about to say something, but he cut him. "I know I'm being ridiculous! I-I'm sorry.. But I can't, not yet. I.. need to figure some things out."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Ukai closed his mouth and stared at the red head./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I promise this is the last time! I won't.. sit out any practice match anymore." Hinata added desperately./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Ukai sighed. He had no idea what was wrong with the small middle blocker. "Okay, but this is the last time." He finally said. "After this I'm working you until you can't even raise your hand after the matches."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Hinata finally looked into his eyes and grinned. "Thank you, coach."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /p  
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"And so, Hinata sat on the bench, watching as his team lost to the other teams. Everyone didn't question him when Ukai announced that Hinata would be sitting today's matches out, but Hinata realized that they were throwing him worried glances now and then. He felt guilt eating his insides; he didn't want to worry his teammates./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The guilt turned into anger when the match between Karasuno and Kaisei was done, and it was directed to a certain tall middle blocker./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""You didn't even raised your hand for the last point." He called out to Tsukishima. Everyone turned to him, surprised./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""He was definitely going to get the point anyway." Tsukishima shrugged and went to get his water bottle./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""You don't know that. The match wasn't over yet." Hinata gritted his teeth./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Shut up, shrimpy. You wasn't even in the match." Tsukishima frowned at him, annoyed. "Everyone knows that there's no way we could beat Kaisei. Their team is really strong this year, they were almost as strong as Fu—" Tsukishima didn't finish his sentence, because Hinata lunged at him./p 


	4. Chapter 4

a/n: Sorry for not updating! I went to Japan for a whole week, it was so fun! Too bad I didn't see any Haikyuu mercy ;u;

And don't worry, there aren't that many OCs in this fic, there are only 3, and 2 of them have appeared already. A question! Is this chapter a little bit comedic? I didn't mean to, this is a fic full of drama after all, but my friend said it's a bit funny. I'm sorry if I'm doing things wrong/any of you doesn't quite like the chapter. xD

* * *

Hinata lunged for Tsukishima and grabbed his shirt, which would be quite a funny view—Tsukishima was way bigger than him—if he wasn't furious. Tsukishima seemed surprised with this. Hinata and furious are two words he would never imagined together.

Ukai wanted to intervene, but Daichi was faster. He was suddenly between Hinata and Tsukishima, Tanaka and Asahi followed his lead; Tanaka pulling back Hinata and Asahi pulling back Tsukishima. Seeing his senpais, Hinata seemed to realize that he wasn't being himself. Tsukishima was too taken aback to say anything. Yachi and Yamaguchi was panicking, and the rest just stared at him warily.

"Hinata?" Daichi asked cautiously.

"S-sorry, Daichi-san... Tsukishima. Sorry. I-i wasn't—"

"Ooh, what is this? Why are you so upset?" all heads turned to Tamura, who was approaching them.

Hinata froze.

"What? Are you upset this tall dude didn't even try to block me?" he smiled sinisterly. "You shouldn't be! You should be proud! He's smart enough not to waste his energy on something pointless."

"..." Hinata looked away.

"Unlike a certain person. Don't you wish everyone is this smart? It would be so wonderful, we could all spare the pain and the drama." The smile disappeared and he glared at Hinata.

Kageyama was getting really annoyed, and he was ready to fight Tamura, but he didn't get to do anything.

"Kenta!" a boy shouted, he was wearing the same jersey as Kaisei but none of the boys have seen him before. He was as tall as Tsukishima, but his body was a lot fuller. He could be intimidating, but instead he had a calm, comforting face like Suga's.

He glared at Tamura, who actually looked a little bit startled at the sight of the boy. "Go." He said calmly, and surprising everyone, Tamura actually obeyed him and went back to where his other teammates were. The new boy, who had brown hair, looked at Hinata.

"Shou." He greeted.

The sight of brown-haired boy actually surprised Hinata. He never thought that he would meet him too. Another boy from his past.

"Yuuta." He greeted back. Yuuta's eyes seemed to soften, and he smiled at the Karasuno boys.

"Hello. I'm Hasegawa Yuuta, the captain of Kaisei volleyball team." He looked around and shook Yamaguchi's hand, just because Yamaguchi was the one who was standing closest to him. Yamaguchi looked startled. "Sorry for Kenta.. for Tamura." He sighed and smiled apologetically, eyes lingering on Hinata longer than it should have.

"It's.. good to see you, Shou. It's been a while." He smiled at Hinata, but the small middle blocker was staring at the floor, refusing to look at him. Hasegawa was going to say something, but Kaisei's coach called his name. "I'll see you guys later." He shot one last smile towards them and went away.

"Sorry, everyone. I'm—I'm sorry." Hinata said, breaking the silence. It was then Tanaka realized that he hasn't let go of Hinata, so he immediately loosen his grip and ruffled his kouhai's messy hair.

"Don't fight with your own teammate." He grinned.

"Right. Sorry again, Tsukishima." Hinata chuckled nervously and rushed out of the gym.

* * *

"Daichi." Sugawara called him. Daichi had been sitting on the end of the table, watching as Nishinoya tried to teach Asahi and Tanaka a magic trick. Kageyama was sipping his milk while pretending that he wasn't paying attention to Nishinoya's explanation, while Tsukishima and Yamaguchi was chatting quietly. Sugawara was sitting beside Yamaguchi, but he went to sit beside Daichi. "I'm worried about Hinata." Sugawara sighed.

Daichi raised his eyebrows. "I know. I think we all are." He said as he glanced over to Hinata who was sitting on another table quietly beside Kenma, who looked like he was racking his brain for topics; a sight Daichi never thought he'd witness. He saw Kenma saying something to Hinata; the latter just nodded and silence fell upon them. Lev bounced to them, talking excitedly, but Hinata seemed to be in his own world. Kenma sighed in exasperation.

"Not just as his teammate." Sugawara continued, snapping back Daichi's attention. "I mean, clearly, whatever's happening right now is influencing how he plays. He had refused to play for two days, Daichi. Two days. Refused to play." He added, unnecessarily emphasizing and repeating some words.

"I get it, I'm—"

"But I'm also worried as his friend, you know. He seemed to be having.. a hard time." Sugawara turned to face him, face worried.

"I know." Daichi frowned. He's worried about Hinata, too. "Do you think he'll talk to you?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure.. I don't want to pressure him, though."

On another table, Hinata stood up and went outside the cafeteria.

"We should do something." Daichi decided. "But I don't know what." He thought.

"Hey." Hasegawa was suddenly there, standing beside their table. Everyone at the Karasuno table was suddenly quiet, even Tanaka and Nishinoya. "Can I sit here?" He asked.

"Oh, sure. Feel free." Daichi said. Hasegawa smiled at him and sat right in front of him. For a while, nobody said anything. Daichi was starting to think whether it was a bad decision to let Hasegawa sit with them.

"Kenta.. he's been.. disturbing Shouyou, hasn't he?" Hasegawa smiled sadly.

"Well.. yeah." Daichi said, unsure on what he should say.

"He's been taunting him!" Tanaka suddenly said.

"Yeah! And he called him names!" Nishinoya added angrily. "Shouyou was clearly disturbed by that."

"What names?" Hasegawa asked.

"I don't know, something like Arin? Aro?" Nishinoya tried to remember.

"Aru!" Tanaka exclaimed.

"Yeah, that!" Nishinoya agreed.

Tsukishima facepalmed himself and sighed. "Ares. He called him Ares."

At the mention of the name, Hasegawa's face hardened. It was scary, it was like seeing Sugawara angry—no. Furious. "I see." he simply said.

"That's the name of one of the Greek Gods, right?" Tsukishima tried, fishing for information. Hasegawa didn't answer him, he just stared at the table as if it did something terribly wrong.

"Hasegawa." Daichi started, sounding unsure. "Hinata.. He's our teammate. He seems troubled ever since Tamura came. I don't know what happened between you guys, but I want to—we want to help Hinata. But we can't, we can't if we don't know anything."

Hasegawa considered what Daichi said. "It's not mine to tell." He finally said. "I mean, he might not want you to know." He sighed.

"But.. I guess I'll tell you. Just a little bit." Hasegawa bit his lips and looked around. The cafeteria was almost empty, except for them and some boys on the table beside them. There were Kenma, Kuroo, Akaashi, and Bokuto. Lev was dragged outside by Yaku. It was clear that they were trying to listen to the conversation happening on the other table. Kuroo was leaning close to the edge of the table, staring at the walls intently, mirrored by Bokuto who was sitting in front of him. Kenma was staring at his phone, but the screen was black, he wasn't doing anything with it. Akaashi was sighing.

"What are you doing?" Hasegawa asked, voice amused.

"Nothing at all!" Bokuto answered while staring intently at the walls. Kuroo didn't answer, he just smirked.

"They're fine." Sugawara assured Hasegawa. The latter didn't seem convinced, but he nodded.

"Okay. But whatever I said here, stays here. I won't forgive you if any of you spread the story or whatever." He said sternly. Everybody nodded and stared at him expectantly. Hasegawa sighed.

"Well, as you know, Hinata is a very talented player." He started.

"He is?" Tanaka cut him.

"He's not?" Hasegawa asked, confused.

Silence fell upon them.

"Wait, _what_?"


	5. Chapter 5

**a/n:** Hey guys! So sorry for not updating earlier, I have been having a hard time writing.

I mean, I know what I wanted to happen, but it's just hard to put them into words

;;w;;

I hope y'all will enjoy this chapter!

Leave me kudos or comments if you'd like i love them hehe xD

* * *

No one said anything.

Sugawara decided to break the silence. "It's not like he's not a good player. He's a great player, he's one of our starting players." He said kindly. "But perhaps talented is not... the right word to describe Hinata."

"He's a hardworker. He knows that his receive, serve and other skills are not that polished yet, and he knows that he's shorter than most player." Daichi added. "He knows that he needs to improve."

"Oh." Hasegawa said, barely audible.

"Kageyama right here is what you call talented!" Nishinoya slapped Kageyama's back. Kageyama frowned. "I mean, Karasuno is not really a talented team, but we all work hard!" He added. "Speaking of Kageyama, Hinata and him have an amazing teamwork! Kageyama could toss right into Hinata's palm, so Hinata could just run wherever he wants as fast as he can and jump! The ball will come to him!"

"That's right! He doesn't even have to open his eyes!" Tanaka added excitedly.

Hasegawa's eyes widen as if he was just hit by a sudden realization. "Oh. _Oh._ "

"What is it?" Bokuto asked.

"No. Nothing. I... I didn't think..." Hasegawa trailed off. "Sorry. I don't think..." He stood up suddenly. "I need to go." He mumbled and hurriedly went outside.

"Er... did I say something wrong?" Nishinoya turned to his teammates.

No one knew.

Kageyama couldn't stop frowning. He just wanted Hinata to go back to his usual self and play with him, so that they can keep practicing their quick and improving. Plus, it was a little bit lonely without Hinata bugging him every single second, but Kageyama wasn't going to admit that.

"Dumbass," Kageyama mumbled grumpily.

Daichi sighed. He was hoping Hasegawa would shed some light for them, but in the end he got nothing. He couldn't stop repeating their conversation, though. Hasegawa seemed convinced that Hinata is a very talented player. _Why?_ And he seemed surprised after he heard about the first years' quick. Daichi was sure that those were hints, but he just couldn't connect the dots.

"It's getting late." Sugawara stopped Daichi's trail of thoughts. "We should take a bath and go to sleep."

Nobody complained, they all stood up and went to take a bath. Akaashi had dragged Bokuto away, too. But Kenma and Kuroo was still there, along with Sugawara and Daichi.

"Have any idea what was that all about?" Kuroo inquired.

"Nope." Daichi sighed. Kenma didn't say anything, but it seemed like he was thinking.

"Well, I'll see you guys tomorrow, then." Kuroo went out, followed by Kenma.

"Daichi..." Sugawara started.

"We'll figure this out." Daichi said. "It'll be fine."

Sugawara nodded, willing himself to believe that they will soon figure this out and have some fun time as a team while improving their skills. That's what the training camp is all about, after all.

"Okay."

* * *

The next day, Hinata was out of excuse. He had promised that he'd play; so he swallowed his anxiety and went to do the warm up with the rest of his team. Everyone could clearly see how nervous he was, he couldn't be still and he kept glancing towards Kaisei.

"You need to calm down, dumbass." Kageyama was suddenly beside him, stretching his legs.

Hinata let out a nervous laugh. "I'm calm!" he said.

"No, you're not." Kageyama retorted, looking at Hinata as if Hinata had ran into a pole because he wasn't concentrating. It had happened before.

"Shut up, Bakageyama!" Hinata sticked his tongue. At least arguing with Kageyama calmed his nerves, even just a little bit.

"Gather around!" Ukai called them. "Right." He said when everyone had gathered. "the starting players are Sawamura, Azumane, Tanaka, Hinata, Tsukishima and Kageyama. Plus Nishinoya, of course." He announced. "I'll be switching everyone in and out so that everyone would get to play, as usual, so just focus and do your best whenever you're in the court." The boys nodded.

"Karasuno, fight!"

Their first opponent—thankfully—was not Kaisei. It was Fukurodani. Even though it's not Kaisei, Hinata was still nervous. Tamura and Yuuta might still watch them play. He looked around, looking for the boys from Kaisei, but he couldn't find them. He sighed in relief. Maybe today everything will be fine, after all.

He was wrong.

After realizing that Kaisei wasn't in the gym—they were probably facing another team in another gym—Hinata felt at ease, and he was able to focus on the game. They lost the first quarter. Hinata looked around to see whether Kaisei's around, but he still couldn't spot them. He relaxed, and the second quarter began. Hinata focused on the game, not realizing that there were some additions to the gym.

He didn't realize it until the end of second quarter, which they lost. Hinata was heading to the bench to get his drink before doing his diving punishment with the rest of Karasuno. He was surprised when he saw some boys who were wearing the jerseys he didn't want to see.

He couldn't find anything to say.

Suddenly, someone rushed towards him and shouted at him.

"That doesn't give you the right!" Tamura shouted, spitting on his face. "You still have no right to play!" He grabbed Hinata's shoulder and shook him violently. "You don't deserve—"

"KENTA!" Hasegawa's voice boomed as he pushed Tamura away, he stood in front of Hinata and glared at Tamura.

"Fuck. Off." His voice was calm, but Hinata knew him long enough to know that he was furious.

"And you still stand for him." Tamura scoffed as he stepped back, but he didn't go away. "After all these years!"

" _Tamura._ "

"It's _his_ fault! It was his fucking fault!" Tamura ignored Hasegawa. "If he didn't—"

"It wasn't just him!" Hasegawa finally lost his patience. Hinata jumped at the sound of his voice. "It wasn't just him, okay? It was _you_ , too!" he added. "It was you as much as it was him, if you insist that it's his fault!"

Hinata couldn't understand. He couldn't understand what's Yuuta's saying and he just wanted Tamura to punch him, kick him, or do anything to him. Anything at all. He has been living with his guilt for years, nothing he did seemed to be enough to ease it up.

"What are you talking about?" Tamura's voice wasn't louder than a whisper.

"What is going on here?" Ukai jogged over, frowning.

Tamura was still staring at Hasegawa intently, daring him to elaborate. Hasegawa didn't say anything, but he stared back at Tamura, unwavering.

Sugawara jogged over to Hinata and placed his hand on Hinata's shoulder. Hinata flinched at the contact.

"I hate you." Sugawara heard Tamura whispered. Sugawara turned to him. He was glaring at Hinata with such hatred, it made Sugawara wanted to put his small kouhai in a box, lock it with a key and bring him home. "I wish it was you." He added. Sugawara can feel Hinata's body stiffen even more at the words. He also caught Hasegawa flinching slightly before he tried to grab Tamura, probably to drag the bastard away.

Tamura pushed his hand away. "I wish it was you instead." He said one more time, this time it was a little bit louder; Sugawara was certain that Ukai and Ennoshita—who was standing beside Ukai—heard it, too.

"Ken—"

"Me too." Hinata said. Sugawara couldn't see his face because Hinata was looking down, his bangs hiding his face. "Me, too."

Sugawara didn't know what the hell happened between these three, but he never heard Hinata sound so fragile. Whatever was going on, Tamura certainly didn't expect to hear that because his eyes widen at Hinata's words. Hasegawa looked as shocked as Tamura was.

"Shou—"

"I'm not feeling well." Hinata didn't give Hasegawa the chance to talk. And then he walked away.

Hasegawa turned to Tamura and threw a punch.


	6. Chapter 6

**a/n:** Hiiii! Sorry for not updating for so long!

I have been updating my other stories but not this one because.. idk, I just haven't been satisfied with what I write for this fic, so I didn't update.  
But I'm back!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.  
Please leave comments and kudos if you did! (it means a lot) xD

See you in the next chapter!

Tumblr: sunshinehina

* * *

It was chaos. Everyone knew that Tamura was a jerk, but nobody expected Hasegawa to throw a punch at him. Hasegawa was like another version of Asahi, a gentle giant, although not as gentle. He had always handled Tamura nicely these past few days, being stern but not rude. So when Hasegawa punched Tamura, everyone was too surprised to move.

Even Tamura.

Hasegawa was going to punch him one more time, but thankfully the other boys from Kaisei was there before he got the chance to, pulling him away from Tamura and trying to calm him down.

Tamura, who was knocked down at the impact, stayed on the floor. He didn't move, and he didn't even try to fight back. A boy from Kaisei kneeled beside him, asking if he was alright. After a few seconds, Tamura stood up and left the gym without saying a word.

Sugawara turned his attention to Hasegawa, who was already calm. He still looked furious, though. Sugawara half expected him to apologize to everyone in the gym, because that seemed like the kind of person Hasegawa was.

But he didn't. Just like Tamura, he left the gym without saying anything.

For some seconds, everyone just stood there in silence, wondering what the heck just happened. In the end, Ukai broke the silence by clearing his throat and telling the boys to get back to their practice matches.

Sugawara couldn't stop thinking about what happened. He was a little bit grateful Kageyama was the one who had to play first because he was sure he wouldn't be able to concentrate. He felt bad for not being able to help Hinata; he had seemd sad when he left the gym. It was pretty clear to everyone that whatever happened betweem the three boys, Hinata didn't want to talk about it. At least, not yet. Sugawara tried to think of a way to help Hinata without knowing what the problem was, but he couldn't find any solution.

Sighing, Sugawara tried to concentrate on the match. They were having a match with Kaisei now. Sugawara could see how his teammates were having trouble to focus, especially Kageyama. The only one who looked like he wasn't having a trouble focusing was Tsukishima. But then, that wasn't really a surprise because Sugawara suspected that the blonde doesn't really care about anyone on the team except maybe Yamaguchi.

* * *

When the practice matches were over and the coaches finally let them go, Sugawara rushed to the cafeteria along with his teammates. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the redhead there, so Sugawara went to look for him in the classroom they were staying in. Daichi, Kageyama, and the rest of Karasuno were silently following his steps.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any sign of Hinata there, either. So Daichi turned to everyone and told them to go eat and take a bath. The boys went back to cafeteria in silence.

Yamaguchi felt like he forgot something, and he realised that his water bottle was nowhere to be found. He nudged Tsukishima, who was walking beside him.

"I think I left my water bottle in the gym." He said when Tsukishima turned to him, raising his eyebrows. "I'm gonna go and get it, go on first without me."

Tsukishima nodded and Yamaguchi started jogging towards the gym. It was already dark outside, given that it was around half past seven.

Yamaguchi found his water bottle in the gym. He sighed in relief and took it. He had just closed the doors to the gym when he spotted a certain redhead walking towards the back of the gym.

"Hinata!" Yamaguchi called out and jogged over.

Hinata slowed down his walking to wait for Yamaguchi, but he didn't stop. Yamaguchi reached his side and started walking beside him. For a few seconds, both first year were silent. Yamaguchi didn't know what to say and Hinata didn't have anything to say.

When Hinata stopped walking and sat down the grass, Yamaguchi realised that they were in the area he had never been to before. The school was quite big, and the areas he had been in were just the gym, the cafeteria, and the first building. However, they were nowhere near the first building.

Following Hinata's lead, Yamaguchi sat beside him.

"Are you alright?" He finally broke the silence.

Hinata didn't answer him, he just hummed and stared at the grasses blankly.

"...the others are looking for you, you know." Yamaguchi tried again.

"I don't really want to face anyone right now." Hinata mumbled, loud enough for Yamaguchi to hear. Realizing that that meant Hinata didn't want to face him _either_ , Yamaguchi almost offered to leave him alone. However, he didn't like how he felt.

Yamaguchi couldn't see Hinata's face clearly because it was dark, but there was some street lamps afar and his eyes were starting to get used to the darkness. It felt strange, Hinata wasn't supposed to be this kind of person. He was one of the loudest, and he was supposed to be cheerful and noisy. Yamaguchi almost felt like he was talking to someone else right now because the Hinata who was sitting beside him was anything but that.

"Are you okay?" Yamaguchi tried asking him again.

Hinata chuckled as if Yamaguchi just said something funny. Yamaguchi didn't need to see his face to know that Hinata wasn't actually chuckling.

"I'm a terrible person, you know."

The sudden statement surprised Yamaguchi as it was something he had never imagined Hinata would say. Hinata's voice was serious, there was no hint of joke in it. Once again, Yamaguchi didn't know what to say, so he did what people usually do when they don't know something.

"...Why?" He asked.

"Because I did something terrible." Hinata answered nonchalantly.

Hinata was a loud person, he was always so full of energy and optimistic; he never knew when to give up.

Yet the boy beside Yamaguchi looked like he was giving up.

It was like he was defying the law of nature, it was like seeing the sunrise in the evening and seeing the sunset in the morning. Yamaguchi wasn't really close to Hinata, he wasn't really close to anyone except Tsukishima, but he cared for Hinata. He knew that there are people who cared more aobut Hinata, but right now he was the only one here. That was what stopped Yamaguchi from standing up and leaving the redhead alone, because frankly saying he had no idea how to console him.

"Are you saying this because of what Tamura-san had been saying?" Yamaguchi asked. He found himself being annoyed at Tamura.

"You're acting like he's the bad guy." Hinata laughed. "Don't. He's not." Hinata added.

"I am."


	7. Chapter 7

**a/n: Hello! Did anyone miss me? XD I hope no one is angry at me for neglecting this fiction for so long. I have been very busy with school and this story had been forgotten for quite a while. I'm very, very grateful to each and everyone of you who took the time to read this story. As I said, this is my first fanfiction ever, so please forgive me if it's very bad :") I, however, am planning to finish this story no matter what. So please stick with me (if you'd like to :")) I hope you like this chapter! Let me know what you think. You can also hit me up on my tumblr, sunshinehina. :D**

 **Thank you so much for supporting this story. I appreciate every review very much. 3 See you on the next chapter!**

* * *

 ** _3 years ago_**

 _"_ _My name is Hinata Shouyou. Nice to meet you!" Hinata introduced himself in front of the class. He had just moved to Tokyo, his father's job being the reason. He used to live in the Kansai area before. It was a relief that he moved in when the school year was just starting, so he was only one week late. It seemed like some of the students still didn't know each other well, so Hinata didn't have to worry about being an outsider._

 _Hinata's first day of junior high school went well. He never had a hard time making friends, it seemed like his upbeat personality made him likeable; to most people, at the very least. His teacher told him that he had to decide which club he'd want to join because in this school, everyone had to have one. Hinata was in the marathon club in his previous school, so he was considering the marathon club. He wanted to see the other clubs too, though, so he decided to go looking around tomorrow. Hinata was on his way home when he passed a court with a net in the middle. He could see some boys, two of them were wearing the same uniform as his, playing volleyball there._

 _"_ _Hey!" One of the boys who was wearing the same uniform, though a little bit taller than him, spotted him and went to approach him. "Do you wanna join us? We need one more person on my team." He grinned._

 _"_ _Oh! Sorry, I uh, I don't play volleyball." Hinata said apologetically._

 _"_ _It's fine!" The boy insisted. "I'll teach you! You just need to stand there, if you really can't. We really need one more person." He begged._

 _That was how Hinata found himself on the court, playing volleyball with boys whose names he didn't know. He didn't help much, too, given that he never really played volleyball. He couldn't help but to feel guilty when their team lost in the end._

 _The boy clapped his back. "Don't make that face. This was just a practice game, after all. Kenta here had just started volleyball, too, so I'm still trying to teach him the basics." He smiled. "I'm Kakeru. Hayashida Kakeru."_

 _"_ _I'm Shouyou, Hinata Shouyou."_

 _"_ _Nice to meet you, Shouyou!" Hayashida grinned. "Say, have you decided what club you want to join?"_

 _Hinata got along really well with Kakeru. He was a very nice person, always so passionate about volleyball. Because Hinata had no idea which club he wanted to join—he was considering the marathon club, but he was open to other options, too—; he had accepted Kakeru's invitation to the volleyball club. Kakeru insisted that it was fine, that he'd teach Hinata everything he needed to know._

 _Kenta, the quiet boy who always seemed bored, was another one of Kakeru's victim._

 _"_ _We met three years ago; he just moved here from Hokkaido and we got along well. In the end, we decided to go to the same school." Kakeru grinned. Hinata hummed in response. "He didn't know what club to join, too, so I persuaded him to join the volleyball club. He'd just started, too. So you don't have to worry about falling behind."_

 _"_ _How about you, Kakeru-kun? When did you start playing volleyball?"_

 _"_ _Last year." Kakeru's grin got wider. "I'm not that great at volleyball yet, but I can still teach you a few things!"_

 _Hinata spent most of his free time with Kakeru, listening to whatever he wanted to teach him about volleyball. This meant that Hinata also spent most of his free time with Kenta, as the two were always together. They were even in the same class. Hinata was in a different class._

 _Despite spending their free time together, Hinata was never really close to Kenta. They both acknowledged each other and were on friendly terms, but they didn't really hang out. Not if Kakeru wasn't there._

 _The club activities were fun. Kakeru's passion to volleyball had started to rub on Hinata; he started wanting to practice more, wanting to go home later in order to improve his techniques. The second and third years of their school were pretty strong, so as first years they didn't get the chance to be starting players. But that didn't make them sad._

 _"_ _We'll definitely be starting players soon!" Kakeru encouraged Hinata and Kenta. Kenta just hummed uninterestedly while Hinata nodded vigorously,"you bet!"_

 _Every Friday, Hinata, Kakeru and Kenta liked to play with the boys around the neighborhood in the court Hinata first met Kakeru. It was nothing serious, just one or two sets of game before the weekend._

 _About a month after meeting Kakeru and Kenta, another person joined their troops. It was Yuuta. Hasegawa Yuuta. Yuuta was one of the second years who was a starting player in their club, his body was already bigger and taller than most boys. Hinata knew Yuuta, of course, but he had never talked to him. It seemed like Kakeru had invited Yuuta to join them._

 _"_ _I figured that if Yuuta-san's here, we could learn from him." Kakeru explained when Hinata asked him later on._

 _They got along well with Yuuta—Kakeru and Hinata. Kenta was always distant towards everyone except Kakeru, so he couldn't be counted. They started hanging out together after practice, watching volleyball matches together or just going to the game center together. Yuuta started going home later to help his juniors with their receives._

 _That was how it all started. That was how Shouyou, Kakeru, Kenta and Yuuta met._

After sitting in silence for a while, Yamaguchi suggested that they should go back because it was getting late. To his relief, the shorter male nodded and stood up silently. They both walked back to the building they were staying in silence. Yamaguchi wanted to comfort his fellow first-year so badly, however he didn't know what to do and what to say. He simply didn't have enough information to say anything. So he tried to show his support in another way, he sat beside Hinata during dinner (Tsukishima was throwing him a questioning look all the time). It was quite awkward because Hinata chose to sit in a table separated from their teammates, but Yamaguchi decided that he'd accompany him. Hinata ate silently during dinner, it felt like Yamaguchi was sitting with a different person.

Yamaguchi was racking his brain for something to say, anything, any trivial thing would do. To ease the silence, he had told Hinata about himself and Tsukishima before high school, he told him about how he used to hang out with the tall blond everyday when they were younger, and when he ran out of things to tell about himself and Tsukishima, Yamaguchi told Hinata about his family.

They were now walking towards the shower room and Yamaguchi couldn't find anything to talk about. He wasn't a talker, not really, even though he does talk more than Tsukishima.

Hinata suddenly stopped walking. Yamaguchi stopped and looked at his teammate worriedly. He opened his mouth to say something, but Hinata was quicker.

"Thank you, Yamaguchi." He said, voice quiet. And then he turned and started walking the other way.

"Hinata!" Yamaguchi called and Hinata stopped. He didn't turn to face him, though. "If there's anything... If you want to talk... I'm here. We're friends, right?"

"...Thank you." Hinata said, this time it was louder than the one before, and then he left.

Hinata was back in the place where he sat with Yamaguchi. He didn't feel like taking a shower yet, partly because the shower room would still be full of boys. He'd rather wait until everyone was done, and then shower in peace. Even though the boys didn't really pester him about what was happening (which he suspect was because of Sugawara and Daichi), the worried and concerned look they gave him was making him uneasy.

He had been spending a lot of his time here these past few days. It was nice, it was quiet. At least, here, he didn't have to act like he was okay.

Because he wasn't.

After a few minutes, suddenly Hinata heard footsteps behind him and sighed. He didn't move from his spot, though.

"Hey Shou." Hasegawa said and sat beside him.

The two didn't say anything for a while. Hinata didn't know for how long, it felt like a minute, but it also felt like an hour.

"..are you okay?" Hasegawa finally broke the deafening silence.

Hinata laughed bitterly and let the question hang between the two. Hasegawa was smart enough to figure the answer by himself.

"You know, I didn't expect to meet you here." Hasegawa said. "You... never told us where you were moving, and you never answer my calls and answer my messages." He continued. "But... I'm glad you're still playing volleyball."

"Kenta's right, though." Hinata mumbled as he look up to the night sky. He couldn't see any stars, even the moon wasn't visible.

Hasegawa frowned and turned to him. "Kenta is—"

"I have no right." Hinata said. And for the first time, he turned to meet Hasegawa's eyes. "He... was the one who introduced me to volleyball. And yet I..."

"It wasn't your fault." Hasegawa raised his voice.

"You don't know that—"

"Yes I do!"

"He told me himself before! Before... he did it." Hinata tried to blink the tears away.

"He wasn't himself. It was something he said in frustration." Hasegawa seemed to have regained his composure. "He didn't mean it." He said gently.

Hinata shook his head and let the tears fall. "It was my fault..."

"No it's not." Hasegawa repeated, sternly but not harshly. He wrapped his arms around his friend, around his little underclassmen as the smaller's body start shaking. "It's not."

The night was silent except for Hinata's sobs. Somewhere along the way, Hasegawa realised that tears have started pouring out ot his eyes, too. If Hinata noticed, he didn't say anything; he kept clinging to Hasegawa as if he was his lifeline.

And the truth was, he had been before. Him, and Kakeru and Kenta.


End file.
